Woodlawn senior Ethan Pennington had taken EAST for several years. He had done some quality projects, but nothing major - never taking on too much responsibility. That all changed at the beginning of his final year in the district.

Pennington decided to take ownership in a project. He decided to lead. And that's exactly what he did when he came up with the idea for the EAST Greenhouse. Pennington raised funds and purchased a greenhouse over the internet. When it came in, he constructed it by the entry into the WHS Fieldhouse. That's when the real work began.

Working closely with WHS art teacher Mrs. Nikki Owens, and avid greenthumb herself, Pennington learned about planting. He planted tomato plants, jalapeño peppers, squash, cucumber, watermelon - and a host of other fruits and veggies. Basically, Pennington planted and learned about anything he could get his hands on. Now it was time to move onto phase three of his project - what to do with his produce. Left with little time due to his impending graduation, Pennington decided to sell the plants to the WHS community. And he sold every one of them. He also was wise enough to pass the knowledge that he'd learned over the past year to several underclassmen in Mr. Lupo's EAST lab so the project could continue to grow and flourish over the years.

"I'm really proud of Ethan," Mr. Jay Lupo said. "That's the beauty of this class to me. You have a kid who had never really found his way in here before. Then all of the sudden, bam - he comes up with a great idea and works hard to achieve the end goal.

"There were a lot of layers to this project. He had to raise the money, build it, learn how to plant and take care of his produce. He had to teach those younger kids how to do it. This is about as EAST as it gets right here."

Future plans for the project include expanding the greenhouse and actually donating some of the produce to the WHS cafeteria and local food shelters.